The CBI will soon file a charge sheet in the alleged bribery scandal involving Mumbai-based DE-Nocil Crop Protection Ltd, an Indian subsidiary of US-based Dow Chemicals.
The CBI will soon file a charge sheet in the alleged bribery scandal involving Mumbai-based DE-Nocil Crop Protection Ltd, an Indian subsidiary of US-based Dow Chemicals.
DE-Nocil made improper payments of approximately $200,000 to government officials in India between 1996 and 2001, according to a US investigation. The bribes included an approximately $39,700 to a Central Insecticides Board (CIB) official to expedite registration of three of the company’s products.
A senior CBI official said the agency had carried out “a preliminary enquiry in 2007” after which it registered a case against an officer of the CIB and DE-Nocil, in August 2007.
“Our investigation team had carried out searches at various places and had gathered concrete evidence in connection with the bribery scandal. The investigations in the case are almost complete now and a charge sheet is likely to be filed in a CBI court soon,” the official said.
It is alleged that DE-Nocil paid money to government officials, state-level agriculture inspectors, sales tax, and customs and excise officials at various stages for registering their products and facilitating their interests in India. Expenditures were also made by the company on gifts, travel and entertainment of government officials.
The US government has said that most of the payments were made through agreements with contractors, who made fictitious additions in bills to DE-Nocil. The contractors then disbursed these extra funds, at DE-Nocil’s direction, to CIB officials.
The Dow chemicals case is one of the seven instances of kickbacks by US companies to Indian government officials, as detailed in a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office by India’s ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, earlier this year.
The ambassador had apprised the PMO of a US report on the foreign corrupt practices act and anti-corruption enforcement. The letter brought to light instances of corruption involving the Indian Navy, Railways, Central Insecticide Board, Department of Revenue, the erstwhile Maharashtra State Electricity Board and other government agencies.
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